I remember back in the old days. There was a certain phone and a plan where it was $15 or something like that. And you would keep it and use it until it ran out.
Anybody know of any good plans ? I’m looking for something that’s not A monthly payment because she does have a plan with her mother. But that phone is currently lost and she’s 12 years old so it gets lost fairly regularly.
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Our youngest son has a phone line on Tello (Sprint) that is prepaid pay as you go. It’s 3c per minute, 1 c per SMS and 2c per MB of data. For emergency use only, this is very cheap assuming your kid can be trusted to not use it for anything else. For his plan, we also have disabled auto-recharge and only recharge $10 at a time. You can also disable using mobile data altogether. May not be the cheapest around but it costs us roughly $10 per year that way (most of it data from Life360 app tracking and a few SMS).
Thank you. Ill add it to my list of options.
Kids get phones before they are teenagers now? That’s terrible. I wonder if later generations will be less likely to give their kids phones.
Yep. Its a huge connivence for us. I get to text or call her whenever i want. If she doesnt respond … well … i tried. She gets to share her day with me whenever she wants. Now how is all that suppose to happen if she doesnt have a phone ? Because neither of us have a house phone.
I think you assumption is she is on her smartphone all the time like a zombie. Shes not.
Can i get a link for tello pay as you go plan ?
I cant find it.
You mean a prepaid phone? I still have spare Tmobile phone that takes $10 refills to keep alive.
Yes. Everybody tried to sell me a plan. Didnt care what i said. They only heard three words … daughter … lost … phone. Here Its 35$ a month.
Noooooo. She lost it under the couch !!
It was absurd honestly.
Prepaid or pay as you go. Thats what im loking for
TMobile prepaid is the cheapest option I can find. However, it doesn’t come with data so that may be a problem for you. If I remember correctly, you need to refill every 3 month to keep it alive but after $100 of refill than every refill, even if it’s only $10, will keep it alive for another year.
I never just signed up for pay as you go (I’ve only cancelled a plan, leaving the PAYG balance), but you should be able to just sign up, not select a plan, and enter a top up amount. Or sign up for a $5-6/month plan for a month, then downgrade to PAYG before the next month’s charge.
If the Sprint service is acceptable, you may find they’re most cost effective than her current phone plan anyways.
Yes. I got it.
Technically it was an operator error. But in my defense the site is confusing.
New phone 35$. Plan is 20$ with auto refill turned on for 10$. Pay as you go.
I dont think ill get burned by her but we gonna find out !!
Thank you everybody for your help.
The other thing I like about Tello is their customer support on phone. Every time I called, I’d get someone within a minute.
For me - this was about 2 years ago - I just ported over my son’s phone number to them and there was an option not to select a plan and only use PAYG credit. I loaded it with whatever the minimum was and then played a bit with the settings to customize it.
If PAYG is not your thing, their $5/month plan for 200 min and unlimited text is not too bad. Or for $1 extra, you can add 1GB data too if you need. We found out that son’s usage was even lower than those since he’s always on wifi and only sends about 10-20 SMS per month so cost is like $1/month. But the nice thing is you can change those monthly to fit whatever your needs are.
My assumption is that most parents are giving their way-too-young kids access to the internet in the palm of their hand (often 24/7) and they aren’t even remotely capable of handling that sort of freedom or responsibility.
I didn’t have regular phone conversations with my parents when I was 12. I talked to them in person everyday. So I guess I don’t really understand your two listed reasons. Are you divorced with joint custody? If that’s the case, then I get it.
I think the underlying issue is that she misplaces her phone often. Another suggestion is a Tile. It would have worked in this particular instance. I use my Tile to find my phone weekly, at least. Not because I am losing/misplacing it. Because I don’t want to spend time looking for it. It has probably saved me hours of my life at this point. For someone who actually misplaces their phone, it would be even more of a godsend. Seriously, you should look into it.
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/2981705/Tile-Mate-White-RT-13001/
Yes. Joint custody.
I cannot make my xwife look for my daughters phone. Wouldnt surprise me if she hid the phone then next weekend says no phone no kid visit for you !!
Tho i did encourage her brother to look.
This is off topic, but your visitations are predicated on her having a phone?
My only question is, if she regularly loses her phone, and gets little/no support from her mom as far as keeping track of it, is she just going to take the second phone and use it until it’s lost as well? A big motivating factor in finding her phone when it’s lost is the fact she doesnt have one until it’s found.
Im a fatwalleter. So thats going to be a hard no. I dont mind spending money but there has to be value.
The phone will be plugged into the wall at moms n not removed unless her phone is lost. Then it is only used to come to dads house. Not to be used if she is going on a trip with mom to the store or to her friends house or even to call her other phone to find it.
But because im that guy … we did set rules such as she is allowed to use the phone call 911 if needed.
If only for coming to dad’s, why not leave the second phone at dad’s? Is there independent travel involved, where having it while in transit is the primary purpose?